Abdul Bari Atwan, a prominent Palestinian analyst and editor of the trans-regional newspaper “Rai al-Youm”, in a scathing article, called the recent UN General Assembly conference entitled “The Two-State Solution” a “revival of historical deceptions” and said that this approach, instead of ending the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, has targeted the Palestinian resistance and has ended up benefiting the Zionist occupation regime.
Atwan wrote in his note: “The current discussions about recognizing the state of Palestine have practically overshadowed the Zionist regime’s devastating war against Gaza and weakened the resistance discourse. While Gaza has become an open cemetery and tens of thousands of innocent people have been massacred, some countries consider the resistance to be the obstacle to the establishment of a Palestinian state, not the occupation that has razed Gaza’s infrastructure to the ground.”
The plan to recognize Palestine; a conditional and baseless deal
He considered four key axes to be signs of the “deception of the new plan”:
1. Britain’s condition for recognizing Palestine by September and making it conditional on Israel’s behavior.
2. Giving Israel the opportunity to continue the genocide and displacement of the people of Gaza until the plan is officially approved.
3. Making the establishment of a Palestinian state conditional on the disarmament of the resistance, with the support of six Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
4. The US’s prepared veto and Trump’s emphasis on complete opposition to a Palestinian state, which he considers “reward for Hamas.”
An excuse to purge Israel in public opinion
Atwan stated: “None of the Western and Arab supporters of the two-state solution dare to call Israel a criminal regime or impose an arms embargo on it. In fact, some, like Britain, still continue to supply weapons and missiles to Israel.”
He also considered the Cairo and Doha talks a failure and asked: “Given the devastated state of Gaza and the West Bank being swallowed up by settlements, where is this Palestinian state going to be established?”
Promises that were never fulfilled
Recalling a history of unfulfilled promises, Atwan said:
– Balfour Declaration (1917) and UN Resolution 181 (1947)
– Security Council Resolution 242 after the Six-Day War
– Oslo Accords (1993) and Salam Fayyad’s role in the PA
– The Quartet Roadmap (2002) which has now been completely abandoned
– Official recognition of the Palestinian state by 142 countries
He added: “The Palestinian people are no longer deceived. They know that these promises have not brought about any change in practice.”
The PA; a tool of Zionism
Abdul Bari Atwan strongly criticized the PA, writing: “The organizations that support this imaginary state today are the same institutions that have become tools of the occupying regime and have not been able to stop even the expansion of settlements in the West Bank in 32 years of negotiations.”
We are not deceived by illusions. Atwan concluded by emphasizing: “We will not be deceived again and we will not allow the Palestinian people to be bitten by the same hole for the tenth time. We continue the path of the great thinker of Gaza, Moin Basiso, who said: ‘If you speak, you will die; if you remain silent, you will also die; so speak and die.'”
